


No place like home

by Ghost_Writer



Category: Swimming RPF
Genre: Christmas, Future Fic, Kid Fic, M/M, it will pass as a christmas fic if you kind of squint and turn your head sideways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-20
Updated: 2013-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-05 04:13:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1089491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghost_Writer/pseuds/Ghost_Writer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryan realises that everything he use to hate when he was younger is now what is most important to him</p>
            </blockquote>





	No place like home

**Author's Note:**

> Written from Ryan's point of view
> 
> dediced that Debbie Phelps might not be so excepting of Ryan and Michael (no real influence on the story but is something i might go into deeper in a next story)

It is snowing outside, already two feet deep with no signs of stopping. The weatherman on the television says there will be more snow this week than there was in the blizzard that hit four years ago. You groan as you switch the set off. You’re still not used to the weather here after all this time. You use to hate the snow, hate the cold. You swore nothing worth be worth giving up the warmth of Florida. And yet here you are, the two soul reasons you are here surrounded by the cold sleeping peacefully upstairs.

The Christmas tree is still up, its lights brightening the otherwise darkened room. In his family, you don’t take down the tree until New Year’s Day. His family has many traditions that yours never did, even though your family is more close-knit than his is. Somehow, both families get along nicely on the rare occasion that they are all visiting at once.

Your family was not here this year, they decided to stay in Florida, and somehow you thought that would ruin the holiday. However, it didn’t, and the strange thing was that you almost felt like a part of his family. After all this time, you have never felt that way until now. His mother even introduced you as her son-in-law when you bumped into one of her friends in the grocery store. After years of ignoring the platinum band on your finger, you finally feel like maybe you’re okay in her eyes. It almost made the last-minute Christmas Eve grocery run bearable.

You have a good life, and you know it. You have a nice home with a swimming pool, although now it looks more like an ice-rink, a new car, more money in the bank than you know what to do with. You have a great family and Snoring Beauty upstairs who loves you, including all your faults. What else could you want?

The sun isn’t up yet, so waking him is out of the question. You’ve done it before with pretty pleasing results for the both of you, but the repercussions are a bitch later. Michael acts like a cranky five year old when he’s sleep deprived, and that is not a pretty picture. No matter how good the sex is, dealing with two five years olds throwing tantrums is not something you want to have to deal with, in a house with no way of escaping.

You go up the stairs slowly, looking at the pictures that line the wall on the way up. Before this - before him - there was nothing hanging in your hallways. Now, there are pictures of smiling children, nieces and nephews from both sides grinning at you, and in the center is a portrait of the most important person in your life.

She sleeps soundly in the bedroom at the top of the stairs. Her bedroom is a lacy pink wonderland, one she fought for last year when the house was redecorated. She stirs a bit when you open the door to check on her, but doesn’t wake. She is a sound sleeper. Her stuffed crocodile has fallen to the floor, and her drowsy eyes open when you tuck it back into bed with her. “Dad?” she mumbles in the sleep-fuddled way that five year olds do. Lifting her head and blinking up at you. 

“Go back to sleep,” you whisper, but her head is already back on the pilow, she has beaten you to it. You make sure she is fast a sleep before you exit her room.

Walking down the hallway to the master bedroom, his snores are audible before you even open the door. He’s sprawled across his half of the bed, and you bite your tongue trying not to laugh. It is amazing, and more than a little amusing, how much they are alike, even down to the way they look and act when they are asleep.  She is Michael's daughter in every way possible, not that you mind. They both have become the centre of your world.

You stare out the window at the falling snow, the world is fast a sleep, peacefull. You stare at the bay for a while before going back to bed. The sky is dark and the snow continues to fall in sheets. You didn’t have snow like that back home, and didn’t want it, but it is still pretty to look at. And you're falling in love with the snow, the same way you fell in love with Michael all them years ago. You’re going to be snowed in soon, and maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

Finally, you climb back into bed, that tired feeling rushing to take you over. Michael opens his eyes when you sit on the bed, the movement of the mattress disturbing him. “Ry'' he mutters as you lay next to him, pulling him closer to you.

“Go back to sleep, babes” you whisper for the second time that morning. Soon he is drooling on your shoulder, nestled into your arms and snoring again.

In a few hours, she will be awake, and you’ll get up to make breakfast. She will eat her cheerios, you will drink your coffee and Michael will read the paper. Michael will swim a few laps with her in the indoor pool, she is already a pro at the butterfly much to your amusement, before feeding the dogs. She’ll probably throw a tea party later in the afternoon, and you’ll be the guest of honor. It’s not your favorite activity, but she enjoys it and that’s what matters.

For the first time, everything for you is perfect. You have a good life, a good family, and it can only get better from here. And as you lay there in Baltimore, the snow coming down with Michael by your side and your daugher sleeping down the hall you wonder how you ever thought this is something you would never want.

Because if there is one thing you have learnt over the years that there is no place like home. And Michael and Shannon are your home


End file.
